Play time
by glorellie
Summary: Post-Ep 6x8 Reflection of Desire. Rossi decides, that Hotch needs a night out and gets Emily involved to make sure that Hotch can't say no. H/P
1. Chapter 1

**Play time **

Rating: K

Summary: Post-Ep 6x8 Reflection of Desire. Rossi notices, that Hotch and Prentiss both like theater.

Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, there would be much more H/P in the new season.

A/N: Thanks to EmilyHotchLover for beta reading.

* * *

It had been a while since the team had done something together outside the office. That's why everybody had been excited, when Garcia had announced, that she had organized tickets for her play and that she expected to see everyone there tonight. But most of all they were eager to see her friend and colleague perform.

Garcia had blown them away. The applause went on and on, with the BAU members clapping the loudest. Afterwards they met outside the theater and waited for Garcia. When she finally stepped outside, she was greeted by five smiling faces. Morgan and Reid were the first to congratulate, followed by Emily and Hotch. Rossi was the last to tell their red haired friend, how amazing she had been. Garcia, who had changed into a blue and yellow dress, was beaming with joy and glad her friends liked the play. The team agreed to walk to a nearby bar, to celebrate Garcia. Chatting and laughing they made their way over to the White Dove Tavern.

When everyone went inside, Hotch called out to Garcia. He waited until they were alone

"It was nice of you to get the tickets for us."

"No biggy, sir" Garcia tried to wash it away

"I know it is to you. If you wanted to share this part of your life with us, you would have done so by yourself. My actions forced you to do reveal something private you otherwise wouldn't have."

"Well, I wasn't happy, that you called me up on my acting, when I had specifically asked you not to mention it. Theater is my thing away from work."

"And I took that away from you."

"It's different, now that you all know, but it was my decision to get you tickets. I wanted you all to be there."

"Garcia, you have every right to keep your private life private. I would never have asked you to step up, if I wouldn't have believed, that it was absolutely necessary."

"And like always you were right. One less creep walking around."

"Are we good then?"

"Yes, sir. I might let slip one of your secrets as revenge in the future so" Hoch raised an eyebrow.

"Just kidding. Buy me a drink and we are good." Not 100 % relieved, Hotch followed her inside the bar.

The rest of the team were standing around a table, with six bottles of beer on it. Garcia went to stand between Emily and Morgan, while Hotch took place between Rossi and Reid.

Rossi handed a bottle to both Hotch and Garcia.

Morgan slipped one arm around Garcia's shoulders and raised the other with his bottle in his hand.

"To Penelope Garcia, the smartest, sexiest and most talented woman on earth."

Each team member raised their beer.

"To Garcia" they all echoed.

"I could get used to this." Garcia announced

Everyone laughed and Morgan gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Reid started to tell something about the writer of the play and for a view minutes the rest of the team could only listen to his lecture. But they didn't mind. They liked Reid for who he was and they had beer.

Sometime later Hotch offered to get another round and went off to the bar. Rossi came along. While they waited to be served, they looked over to their co-workers.

"It's good to see everyone so relaxed" Rossi stated.

"It is." Hotch agreed.

Hotch studied everyone. Reid had a big, happy smile on his face and Morgan was fooling around with Garcia. Then his eyes went to Emily, who had turned her back to him. He thought she looked stunning in her red dress. As if she felt his gaze on her, Emily turned around and smiled at him. For a moment their eyes locked across the room. Hotch only turned away when the bartender asked him what he wanted.

"My second wife always forced me to go to see these horrendous performances" Rossi said, when he and Hotch made their way back to their table.

"Sometimes production can be challenging for the viewers, but I say most of the plays I got to see were quite good."

The two men took on their former places between Emily and Reid, while carrying on their conservation.

"Anything you could recommend?" Rossi asked.

"Not really. I haven't seen anything lately."

"Well, how about you?" Rossi turned to Emily.

"Do you have a good theater recommendation?"

"If you mean anything besides of what we have seen tonight, then the answer is no. As much as I would like to, I haven't been to a theater in quite a while."

"But I can recommend you some good romantic-comedies, if you want" she offered.

"Chick-flicks! No thank you."

An hour later they decided to call it a night. Everyone found a cab and went home.

Two weeks later, a case came up, that took them to Louisiana. Several black haired women had been murdered. After five days the police were able to catch the killer, but not before two more women had been killed. It had been tough on the team when they found the bodies of the two missing women in the UnSubs garage. The plane ride back to Washington had been unusually quiet.

The following days Rossi noticed that Hotch was burying himself with work. Turing the day he hardly stepped out of his office and in the evening he stayed longer than usual. One morning he went to Hotchs office talk to him.

"Good to see you are still alive." Hotch just looked him, without having clue what this was about.

"We haven't seen much of you in the last days."

"I had work to do."

"More than usual?" At this point Hotch knew what his friend was getting to.

"I'm alright Dave. The last case just reminded me, that we have to be very thorough in everything we do or we might miss something important."

"There is always a chance we might miss something. We are only human. Getting all worked up is not the solution. If you want to prevent mistakes, take a break sometimes. Relax. A fresh mind sees more than attired one."

"Thanks for the advice."

"I charge in Bourbon."

With that Rossi went back to his own office.

Rossi sat down behind his desk and thought once more about his friend. Maybe he should do something more than just give advice. He turned this computer and started searching on the Internet. After finding what he was looking for, he went back to Hotch.

"You said you like theater?" Rossi took Hotch silence as a yes.

"Good. "Rossi put a piece of paper on his desk.

"I bought a ticket for you. Cyrano de Bergerac. It's on tonight. "

"Tonight? That is quite a short notice."

"Do you have any plans? Work doesn't count!" Hotch didn't answer. He studied the paper in front of him.

"This says "two" tickets?"

"Yes. One moment please." He stepped out of the office door.

"Emily, could you come up for a second."

He waited for Emily to enter Hotch office, before he asked:

"Do you have any plans for tonight?"

"No-why?" Emily asks suspiciously.

"Now you have. I got Aaron tickets for Cyrano de Bergerac. If I only got one for him, he would find an excuse not to go, but if you are going as well, he can't back out."

"You can't just make plans for other people!" Hoch protested.

"You need to have a life outside this office. Even one besides your son. From time to time you need to do something just for yourself. I'm just giving you a push into the right direction."

"It's not that simple."

"It can be."

"I need a babysitter for a start."

"Well, than I leave you two alone to make arrangements."

Emily had watched the whole exchange, admiring Rossi for his boldness. When he was gone, she turned to Hotch.

"I'm sorry, you got dragged into this" Hotch apologized.

"Don't worry." After a pause she continued: "So what are you going to do?"

Hotch wasn't sure. He looked at Emily for an answer.

"I would come. With you. If you want me to, that is."

"You would?" He looked down on the paper before him.

"This says the play starts at 8 p.m. I could pick you up at 7?"

"Sounds good."

"I need to talk to Jessica and see if she can watch Jack."

"Sure."

"So 7 p.m.?"

"It's deal." For a second Emily had wanted to say date, but thought better of it.

She walked back to her desk, wondering what the evening would bring. She was also getting a bit nervous. It wasn't like she hadn't been with Hotch alone before, but the two of them had never gone out like this. Just her and him on an evening out.

Emily had changed into a black evening dress, when he came to her apartment to pick her up. It had taken her forever to decide what to wear. Neither did she want to look to sexy, nor would she look dull. After almost giving up, she finally settled for the dress, she was wearing now. She had had just left enough time to put some make-up on.

Hotch was wearing a black suite, but just as he had the night of Garcia play, he wasn't wearing a tie. Instead of a white shirt, he had changed into a dark blue one. Emily starred at him for a moment, when she opened the door. It was a rare sight, to see him out his FBI agent uniform.

"Is something wrong?" His voice brought her back to the present.

"No, no." Now taking a real look at him, she noticed something.

"Actually, there is. You've got something there." She stepped closer to his right shoulder and said with a grin.

"Let me guess: ice cream for dessert?" His eyes widened in surprise. Then realization came.

"Jack." An apologizing smile appeared on his face.

Hotch followed Emily to the kitchen, where she took care of getting him cleaned up. They stood comfortably together and didn't mind the other ones presence at all. It felt, if they had done this a hundred times before.

"Thank you" Hotch said after she was done, not moving away from her.

"You're welcome." Emily smiled at him, before she added "I think we should go or we might be late and you don't want to tell Rossi we didn't make it on time."

"No way!"

They made it to the theater on time. Rossi had gotten them good seats. They soon settled in and enjoyed the show. Afterwards they decided that they could use some fresh air and went for a walk. They stopped at a shop window here and there, otherwise kept on walking, caring on a relaxed conversation. Emily felt very light hearted. It made her happy to see Hotch smile and even hear him laugh from time to time. When he brought her back to her apartment, she couldn't help, but smile.

"I have to thank Rossi for getting us the tickets. I really had fun tonight." Emily said, standing outside her door.

"Rossi."

"And you, of course. Thank you. But it was Rossi's idea!"

"Yes, it was. But if he ever feels like getting tickets for us again, I hope it wouldn't be on such a short notice again."

Emily chuckled. Then she looked straight into his brown eyes.

"I wouldn't mind repeating this."

He didn't say anything to her confession, but his eyes told her, that he felt the same way. Then it was time to say good bye. Emily told him to drive home safely and went inside her apartment.

Hotch was on his first cup of coffee, when Rossi came into his office the next morning.

"How was it?" he wanted to know.

"The play was good. Talented actors, nice stage design."

Hatched expected his friend to be curious, but that doesn't meant he would just tell him every detail.

"And?"

"I had a nice evening. Thank you." His voice made it clear; he wasn't going to say anything more. Rossi thought about his statement. Then he said:

"I'm glad you did." He turned around to leave, when Hotch called him back.

"Dave, why did you ask Emily to go with me? I would have gone alone. "Rossi shrugged his shoulders.

"You both like theater. I thought it would be more fun together, than going alone."

"You could have come yourself" Hotch insisted.

"Nah." Rossi shook his head. Hotch studied his friend, wondering what the older man had in mind, that he wasn't telling.

Rossi left without saying anything else. Only when he was out of Hotchs office a knowing smile appeared on his lips. Still cheerful he went back to work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Play time - Part 2 -**

Rating: K

Summary: Post-Ep 6x8 Reflection of Desire. Hotch, Prentiss, theater, round 2.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: It's really getting hard to find the inspiration for a Hotch/Emily story, when you look at the lack of H/P scenes in season six and read all the spoilers about Pagets exit. On the one hand I'm used to it, because pairings I like never seem to work out, but on the other hand it's still frustrating. I never expected them to actually hook up on the show, but come on, some more cute, sweet scenes between the two before Paget leaves wouldn't have hurt. Anyway, I wrote another part for this story. Be warned. This one is not beta read (if anyone wants to do that job, let me know). This part turned out be more humorous then I had in mind, when I started writing this story. It happens. Now read for your self.

* * *

It was Friday night and Emily, Garcia and JJ had met at their favorite bar. They tried to get together and have a girls night out every two or three weeks, but sometimes one of them were out of town or was to busy, so that they wouldn't see each other for weeks. This time they hadn't seen each other for a month and they had many stories to tell. JJ was showing Emily and Penelope the newest picture of her son Henry on her phone, when she remembered something.

"Hey, has anyone of you plans for next Friday? I got two theater tickets, but Will and I are going to visits Wills family. It's it his mothers birthday."

Expectingly JJ looked from Emily to Garcia.

"Sorry, I will be star of the night myself, but maybe Emily wants them? The word is she has a new found interest in the performing arts. Especially when a certain unit chief comes along."

"Hotch? Did I miss something?" JJ's curiosity was piqued.

"No, you didn't, because there is nothing to miss." Emily claimed.

Ignoring Emily, Garcia went on to tell JJ what had happened two weeks earlier.

"Emily and the boss man had a date!"

"Really! And you didn't tell me!"

"There was no date!" Emily protested.

"Darling, did you or did you not spend an evening with him?" Garcia questioned.

"Rossi got us theater tickets! That's all." Emily defended herself.

"My point, exactly. He picked you up, you went out, had a good time: That's what you call a date!" Garcia insisted.

Emily rolled her eyes in frustration.

"It wasn't a date!"

JJ decided it was the perfect time to torture her friend a bit.

"What did you see?" she asked innocently.

"Cyrano de Bergerac."

"Cyrano de Bergerac, quite romantic don't you think?"

"Rossi's pick!"

"Well, you could do worse than Hotch."

"Definitely. The man is HOT. Not as hot as my man chocolate, but if you like the tall, dark, prince of cool type. " Garcia agreed.

Emily starred at her friends in disbelieve. Seeing the look on her face, the two women broke into heavy laughter. After they calmed down, all three of them took a sip from their drinks.

JJ noticed how Emily was a bit off. She didn't need to be profiler, to realize that their little teasing maybe had hit a bit of a nerve for her dark haired friend. She knew Emily and Hotch had a special connection. The way Emily had supported him, after the attack was more than a co-worker helping another co-corker. She hadn't thought much of it back then, since the whole team was very close, but what if it was more? What if Emily had deeper feelings for him?

Emily became aware of JJ studying her.

"What?"

"Do you want the tickets?" JJ asked quietly, not teasing anymore.

"Why not. If we are not out of town, I don't have any plans, yet."

"Good. I send them to you."

"Wait. What are they for anyway?"

* * *

When Emily came to the office on Monday she found an envelop on her desk, that was addressed to her in JJs neat handwriting. It contained two tickets and a piece of paper.

Emily sat down and unfolded the letter.

* * *

_Hey Em, _

_as promised two ticket for The Sunshine Boys. I hope you are going to have fun and I'm expecting a full report afterwards. And don't be shy: ask Hotch to go with you! _

_Love_

_JJ_

_

* * *

_

Emily put the letter down on her desk, starring at the two white tickets. Was this JJ's attempt of setting her and Hotch up? She wasn't quite sure what Rossis intention had been, when he had asked her to go along with Hotch, but somehow Emily doubted it had only been, so that Hotch would have company. Then, it was no secret that she and Hotch were friends. Maybe that was all Rossi and JJ were thinking of.

Emily was pulled back from her thoughts, when a familiar voice addressed her.

"Everything all right?" Hotch asked. He had some files in his hand and was on his way to his office, but had stopped next to her, when he had seen her moonily look.

"Oh yeah. I was just thinking..." Emily answered with a smile.

"Good." Hotch walked on.

Okay, why not, Emily thought and got out of her seat.

He was already on the stairs, when Emily called after him.

"Hotch!" Hearing his name, he turned around.

"JJ gave me tickets for "The Sunshine Boys" next Friday. I was wondering, if you would like to go with me."

When he didn't answer right away, she feared, he would just say no or that he already had plans or something else that would make her feel stupid. But he didn't.

"The Sunshine Boys? That's the one with two entertainers who hate each other, but reunite for one last time, right? I like to see that."

Emily was relieved to get an positive answer.

"Uh, great." Not knowing what else to say, she went back to work.

Just like the first time Hotch came by Emilys apartment to pick her up. He was very pleased when he saw, that she was wearing the same black dress, she had worn the night they had flown out to Alaska. He thought it looked very good on her and just like the first time he had seen her in it, he noticed how well her legs were shown.

Neither Emily or Hotch had seen _The Sunshine Boys_on stage before, nor had they seen the movie with Walter Matthau. They enjoyed it quite a bit. Emily was glad, it wasn't a dark piece. This way she got to hear Hotch laugh.

When the play was over they were in a good mood. Hotch helped Emily in her coat and was smiling brightly at her. Emily noticed this and wondered who this man was.

He stirred her away from the crowed of theatergoer and out on the street.

"The guy, who played Clark was fantastic."

"Oh yes. I loved him doing his comedy act."

They walked down the street with it's cafes and bars. Suddenly Hotch noticed something on the other side of the street. It was a bar called "Elliots". He remembered, that he and Rossi had been there one or twice. He stopped and turned to Emily.

"Would you like to get a drink?"

"I'd love to."

They sat down on a small round table across from each other. A waitress came by and they ordered some red wine. After that they sat in easy silence, until Emily couldn't help it, but had to chuckle.

"What?" Hotch had no idea what mad her laugh.

"This is more like you again." Hotch didn't know what was on her mind.

"Not talking. That's ...you."

"As opposite to...?"

"Laughing."

"As surprising as it seems to you, I do laugh occasionally."

"I know. I was there tonight. But it's not often that I get to hear it."

"True, but then it's not often that I get to hear you laughing either."

"Right." Emily smiled at him.

The waitress brought their wine. They took their glasses.

"To more laughing?" Emily suggested

"To more laughing" Hotch agreed and they clinked glasses.

"I know something to make you laugh. It's a joke Garcia told me this morning." Emily said grinning.

"Oh goodness."

"Don't worry. It's not NC-17. "

"Well, in that case: go ahead."

"Says the patient to the doctor: I can't sleep when I drink coffee. Says doctor. Interesting, for me it's the other way round: I can't drink coffee when I sleep."

"That's funny?"

"Yeah, if Garcia tells it to you..." When a smile appeared on his lips she added

"See! At least I made you smile."

He chuckled and looked in her eyes and Emily could have sworn, she saw the same sparkle of excitement in his eyes she felt that moment.

The next morning Emily was still deep asleep, when her phone rang. Cursing who ever it was calling, she picked up the phone.

"Hello" she said with a sleep filled voice.

"Sounds like someone had a long night." JJ answered cheerfully.

Emily growled something as answer that JJ couldn't make out, so she just ignored it.

"How was it?"

"JJ, it's 7 a.m. On a Saturday. Why are you up so early?"

"You do remember this adorable little boy, that calls me mommy? He does not care what day of the week it is to be full of energy when he wakes up and wants to be entertained."

"And why are you calling me at this untimely hour?"

"Because, you had a date with Hotch."

Emily yawned.

"So how was it?"

"We went to the theater, had a drink and that was it. End of night."

"Come on!"

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"I can tell you hiding something! Wait! Is he there with you!"

"JJ! He's my boss!'

"He's also a man. A handsome man."

Emily buried her face in her pillow.

"JJ it's 7 a.m. My brain is not ready for this kind of joking. Because you better be joking. I tell you what: I call you later, when you don't feel like being funny. So bye."

Emily hung up, before JJ had the chance to protest. Then she fell back in her pillows and closed her eyes. She was still tired and since it was Saturday she could as well stay in bed a bit longer. Maybe she would tell JJ later about how good Hotch had looked, how one glass of wine had turned into another, how he had walked her to her door and how the look in his brown eyes when they finally said good bye had made her knees weak. And how she had wished, he would kiss her. Of course, Hotch had not kissed her, but just because it didn't happen, didn't mean, she couldn't wonder about what it would have been like to be kissed by him. Emily wrapped her blanked around her. With a smile on her lips she to doozed off once more.


End file.
